Max Verstappen is often considered the golden apple of Red Bull due to the performance and fame he has brought to the Austrian outfit in recent years. The Dutch driver has amassed 14 wins this season, winning the championship in a spectacular manner and getting the team to the constructor’s title pretty much single handedly.
Sergio Perez couldn’t even come close to what Max Verstappen has managed to do in the absolute rocket ship Red Bull has designed this year. While many people think that the car is the reason for Max Verstappen’s wins, an ex-F1 champ, however, thinks that Verstappen is instead the reason for Red Bull’s glory.
Verstappen’s mastery powers Red Bull
There are many instances where drivers are miscredited for their honor by simply claiming that it is because of the car’s unmatched pace that they are able to win multiple races or the world championship. What people fail to notice is that drivers get these cars to their maximum potential and no one can win the championship in a back-marker car.
The 1997 F1 World Champion, Jacques Villeneuve, took it upon himself to explain that it is indeed Max Verstappen’s untiring efforts that make Red Bull a glorious team instead of the other way around.
In an interview, Villeneuve commented and stressed upon the fact that it is Max Verstappen who wins these points on his own accord.
“It is wrong to say Red Bull is unbeatable, Max is,” Villeneuve told Gazzetta dello Sport. “One has to remember that Mercedes was a second faster than the rest when they dominated.”
Villeneuve’s inclusion of Mercedes explained that when Lewis Hamilton was winning his races and absolutely dominating the championship, it was partly because of how Mercedes had managed to build a car that was a second faster than the entire field. In the case of Max Verstappen, however, Jacques said the pace shown by Perez is the true pace of the car so unlike Lewis’s golden era, where he had the rocket ship everyone believed he had, Max Verstappen instead has a moderately fast car which he managed to get to the top.
“There was a fight at that time only because there was a conflict between Mercedes’ drivers. Red Bull is not a second faster than the rest of the field. They struggle to grab pole positions and if they do it at all, it’s by a tenth of a second.”
In what years did Lewis Hamilton win F1 championship?
Lewis Hamilton is the only driver so far to have equaled the 7 world championship record set by all time great Michael Schumacher. Lewis Hamilton was also about to win his 8th championship in the year 2021 but unfortunately he couldn’t do it.
The British driver got his first title just after his entry into Formula 1 the previous year. He was the 2008 world champion for McLaren. Thereafter, Lewis signed up for Mercedes and after Sebastian Vettel’s furious four titles, he clinched the championships again in 2014. 2015 with 2016 being a close fight he lost teammate Nico Rosberg. Lewis then went on to win 4 championships in a row from 2017 to 2020 marking his dominance in the pinnacle of motorsport.
Do you also think that drivers only win championships because of an unbeatable car, do let us know in the comments.
